WHAT DOES A $4,000 VEHICLE WRAP REALLY COST?

When you spread the investment across millions of potential impressions, the math gets pretty interesting.

You've probably heard the statistic before: a wrapped vehicle can generate 30,000 to 70,000 visual impressions per day, particularly in busy metropolitan markets. It's a figure that has been widely circulated throughout the vehicle graphics industry for years, including in material published by 3M.

Like any advertising statistic, it needs some context. A contractor's van parked most of the week in a rural driveway isn't going to receive the same exposure as a service vehicle traveling throughout Seattle every day. Routes, traffic, miles driven, where the vehicle is parked and the market itself all matter. So 70,000 impressions shouldn't be viewed as a promise.

But let's use that upper-end figure simply to demonstrate the potential economics of vehicle advertising.

LET'S DO THE MATH

Suppose a business invests $4,000 in wrapping a commercial vehicle and keeps that wrap in service for six years.

At 70,000 potential impressions per day, the math looks like this:

70,000 impressions × 365 days × 6 years = 153,300,000 potential impressions.

That original $4,000 investment works out to approximately $667 per year, or just $55.56 per month over those six years.

Spread the $4,000 across 153.3 million potential impressions and the advertising cost becomes approximately $0.026 per 1,000 impressions—about 2.6 cents for every thousand potential views.

Even if we cut the exposure assumption dramatically and use 30,000 impressions per day, the same vehicle could generate approximately 65.7 million potential impressions over six years. The effective cost would still be only about $0.061 per thousand impressions.

And unlike many forms of advertising, there isn't another media bill arriving next month.

THE ADVERTISING YOU ALREADY DRIVE AROUND

That's what makes vehicle graphics such an unusual advertising medium. The business already needs the truck, van or car to perform its work. Once that vehicle is wrapped, everyday activities—driving to a customer, sitting in traffic, stopping for lunch or simply being parked at a jobsite—can become opportunities for brand exposure.

A $4,000 wrap shouldn't be judged only by what it costs on installation day. If that graphic remains on the road for years, the better question may be what that original investment costs per day, per month and ultimately per impression.

Over six years, $4,000 amounts to about $1.83 per day.

For an advertisement you can potentially drive past thousands of people every day, that's a pretty remarkable number.

Article by Jason Scott | Co-Founder of WrapJax and its Family of Brands